Morphometric Assessment of the Heteromodal Association Cortex in Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: The heteromodal association cortex has been hypothesized to be selectively involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. To test this hypothesis, the authors measured prefrontal, inferior parietal, and superior temporal gyrus volumes and examined the pattern of connections among these regions. METHOD: Forty-four patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 34 healthy comparison subjects were included in the study. A spoiled gradient recall acquisition in the steady-state three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging sequence was used for morphometric assessment of the heteromodal association cortex. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia had significantly smaller inferior prefrontal region volumes and significant reversal of the normal asymmetry of the inferior parietal cortex. No significant group differences were found in superior temporal gyrus volume. The groups differed significantly in the correlation between inferior prefrontal region volumes and angular gyrus volumes. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that patients with schizophrenia may be characterized by selective abnormalities of the heteromodal regions involved in the neuroanatomy of language.